AfterMath - Emily Barth Isler - ★★★★.½

AUTHOR: Emily Barth Isler

GENRE: Middle-grade Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: September 7, 2021

RATING: 4.5 stars

In a Nutshell: What a brilliant book this is! And yet, it leaves me with a niggling doubt about whether its content is suitable for children.

Plot Preview:

Twelve year old Lucy’s family is struggling with the death of her younger brother from a congenital heart defect. In an attempt to make a fresh start, the family shifts to a different town. But Lucy finds that her new classmates are dealing with a different tragedy of their own – they are the survivors from a school shooting that happened in their class 4 years back.

The book depicts the impact of tragedy on these young lives, with Lucy struggling to fit in a class full of children dealing with PTSD in different ways, and her own tragedy making her a misfit in her new social circle. All Lucy has as a source of comfort is her love for math, which seems to be reliable and definite, unlike most other things in her life. Soon, Lucy learns that everyone can deal with grief in different ways, and kindness is a powerful tool to overcome most obstacles.

What I loved:

• Lucy being a math geek! I adored the way she thought in Math and tried to put everything around her in terms of math. The intelligent manner in which the author has interwoven mathematics in the story is worth appreciating. The geek in me enjoyed all these math references. (Including the math riddles and the fact that every chapter began with an interesting math-related fact that also connected to the story. Brilliant!)

• The first person perspective of Lucy: This writing style brought us that much closer to her insecurities, her confusion, her love for maths, and her wish to fit in.

• The title: What a clever name for this book! It is a perfect fit for the story in multiple ways. Other than the obvious ‘math’ reference to indicate Lucy’s love for the subject, it also hints at the aftermath of the two tragedies: the death of Lucy’s brother and the school shooting.

• The characters: Most of the main characters are depicted in a very realistic manner and you feel for them as they go through their lives in the ‘aftermath’ of their respective traumas. The author doesn’t seek to exaggerate or devalue any experience but stays true to how actual people might behave under similar circumstances in real life. I especially want to mention two memorable characters here: Avery, whose step-brother was responsible for the shooting, and Mr. Jackson, the teacher who seems to be modelled on Mr. Brown from Wonder. You will feel deeply for the former and admire the latter. On the whole, the character development in the book is fabulous.

• The issues it raises: This one book has the potential for so many important discussions we need to have with children: the importance of open and frequent communication, the willingness to opt for therapy if needed, the necessity of understanding mental health struggles (both for yourself and for others), gun control and personal safety requirements. It is a goldmine of discussion opportunities, and not just for children. I’m sure school shootings rank as one of the worst nightmares for a parent, and it preys on their feeling of helplessness in dealing with such situations. The book will be a worthwhile, albeit traumatic read for parents too.

What I am unsure about: (Note that I didn’t say ‘dislike’)

Is this a book I would want middle graders to read? I honestly don’t know. The content is quite dark. With a sibling death, parental problems dealing with the tragedy, and a school shooting too, the book is really heavy on the emotional scale and may not be the right fit for most typical middle graders. At the same time, these are events that actually happen, and awareness is always helpful. To put it bluntly, this book could either help children understand trauma, or it will end up creating trauma. So I’m a bit divided in my feelings here. While the topics are handled with a lot of sensitivity, I still feel that it would be better to target the YA audience and above as potential readers for this story. But yes, I would consider it an essential and impactful read for every adult.

Minor complaint:

I do not particularly like romance being included in a children’s book, even if it is aimed at middle-graders. While the crush-on-a-classmate arc is used properly by the author as a necessary plot point for one crucial scene, and she also includes one character saying that this is not the right age for such thoughts, (Thank you for writing that, dear author!), the fact still is that I do not like to read about crushes in a children’s book.

The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook is narrated by the author herself and she does a great job. I enjoyed her performance more than I had expected. It’s a pretty short audiobook at just a little over 5 hours.

Recommended to all adults (young and not so young), and only to the most mature middle-graders.

Thank you, NetGalley and Lerner Audiobooks, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.